1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns swabs impregnated with physiologically active agents and a related method for topically treating skin, hair and the oral cavity.
2. The Related Art
Swabs having an absorbent covering on the tip and an elongated stem are well known. Cotton is generally used as the absorbent covering material. Stem materials are often of wood, rolled paper or plastic. An adhesive binder may be used to more firmly hold the absorbent covering in place upon the swab. Ordinarily extremely small amounts of binder are used so as not to interfere with the billowy nature of the attached cotton.
Swabs have been used as applicators for a variety of cosmetic and pharmaceutical purposes. Rarely are they pretreated with any sort of agent intended for transfer. It is up to the consumer to dip the swab into a particular agent or cosmetic which they wish to apply to their body. Non-pretreatment of swabs has the advantage of universality and allows choice to the consumer. Unfortunately, universality sacrifices the advantage of convenience. Perhaps even more important is sacrifice of the functional advantage from a swab engineered to solve a particular problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,348 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,028, both to Seifert and assigned to the Institute Guilfoyle, disclose an engineered swab-type article intended for delivery of liquid products to the skin. Therein is disclosed a flexible stick-like fluid dispenser mounted with a cotton tip. A frangible seal separates the fluid compartment from the tip. Upon application of force against the seal, a separation wall breaks allowing fluid to permeate the cotton tip. Products related to this technology are sold by the Purdue Frederick Company under the trademark Betadine(copyright) Prep Stick. This product is described as a self-saturating disposable swab applicator for povidone-iodine used as a topical antiseptic. The Betadine(copyright) Prep Stick applicator is marketed as an individual swab sealed within a tear open pouch. Systems of this type are expensive to manufacture, and somewhat messy considering the requirement for the active agent to be delivered in a relatively non-viscous highly fluid carrier. Active agents must also be soluble in that carrier for transfer to the tip.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,215 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,919,152 to Zygmont disclose a swab whose absorbent covering has been treated for resistance to bacterial contamination. The covering, in particular a cotton wad, is dipped into a padding medium which includes an anti-microbial agent dispersed in a water slurry having up to 20% of a binder. The swab is dried after the padding step resulting in the anti-microbial agent being deposited in dry form onto the cotton wad.
A particular problem in transference of active agents occurs where the transferred composition is a relatively viscous substance. Fibers of the cotton tend to adhere to the viscous composition causing clumps of fibers to transfer with the composition onto the body. Not only is deposition of fibers onto the skin aesthetically and functionally displeasing, but transfer of the composition as a non-messy, accurate application is thereby hindered.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a swab pretreated with an active agent for topical application to the body.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cotton swab pretreated with an active agent forming an applicator system that can cleanly deliver the agent without interference and transfer of any substantial amount of cotton from the applicator tip.
A swab product is provided which includes:
(i) an elongate stem with first and second ends opposite one another, a fibrous absorbent covering surrounding at least one of the first and second ends, the covering being held together by a film-forming polymer; and
(ii) a treatment composition including an active agent, the composition having a viscosity ranging from about 50 cps to about 5,000,000 cps.
In a more particular aspect of the present invention, there is provided a swab product including:
(i) an elongate stem with first and second ends opposite one another, fibrous cellulosic absorbent covering surrounding at least one of the first and second ends, the cotton being held together by a film-forming polymer in an effective amount to prevent the fibrous covering from unfurling during use; and
(ii) a treatment composition including from about 0.0000001 to about 20% by weight of the composition of an active agent and from about 80 to about 99.9% by weight of a composition of a hydrophobic cosmetically acceptable carrier, the composition having a viscosity ranging from about 100,000 cps to about 3,500,000 cps.
Still further, there is provided a method for treating diseased or injured skin by applying through aid of a swab, a treatment composition including an effective amount of an active agent against the disease or injury suspended in a cosmetically acceptable carrier, the composition having a viscosity ranging from about 50 to about 5,000,000 cps, the swab including an elongate stem with first and second ends opposite one another, an absorbent covering such as cotton surrounding at least one of the first and second ends, the covering being held together by a film-forming polymer and whereupon is deposited the treatment composition.